Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen fans weren’t the only ones relieved that Derek McInnes stayed at Pittodrie

Steven MacLean.
Steven MacLean.

Aberdeen fans weren’t the only ones relieved that Derek McInnes decided to stay at Pittodrie.

The St Johnstone players were delighted to hear the surprise news as well.

Because had it been the other way around, Steven MacLean would have expected Tommy Wright to be high on Stewart Milne’s wishlist to replace McInnes.

“Like everybody else, I’d thought he was away,” said MacLean.

“Then when I heard he’d stayed I was kind of shocked.

“I thought we might have been facing our gaffer on Wednesday and Del on Saturday! My initial thought was ‘well, our gaffer will be staying’.

“He would have had a massive chance of getting the Aberdeen job if Del had gone to Rangers.

“It’s hard to comment on why Del has made the decision to stay at Aberdeen because you don’t know what’s gone on.

“But I do know that Aberdeen will be delighted and so are we. You don’t know if our gaffer would have got the Aberdeen job but he would definitely have been linked with it.

“Both sides will have taken a lift from it.”

MacLean had his usual free Saturday as his team-mates played on an artificial pitch against Hamilton Accies.

The veteran forward was scouting for his manager and is ready to get his boots back on tonight.

“I wasn’t given the weekend off,” he said. “I normally go to our games when I’m injured or it’s an artificial pitch but this time I watched a match for the gaffer which was a different experience.

“I’m raring to come back now.

“It’s a big week, with two tough games.

“You could argue that it’s the second and third best teams in the league, although Hibs would probably have something to say about that.

“Aberdeen and Rangers are matches you always look forward to.”

The former Dons forward added: “It was a good result on Saturday.

“It’s always a hard place to go and by all accounts the pitch was up to its usual high standards!

“It’s never going to be pretty there so it was a great win and it’s good for Scougs (Stefan Scougall) to get his first goal. Hopefully he can kick on now and get a few more.

“Getting that goal will be important for him. You’re always looking to get off the mark at a new club. It was a calm finish and he’s got a lot of quality as a player.”

Saints have got a very good record against Aberdeen in recent seasons but the 3-0 defeat at Pittodrie in September isn’t a fond memory.

“We were poor that day,” MacLean recalled. “That can happen. But they out-worked us and scored from three set-plays, which is very disappointing.

“You can lose games by the other team playing better but it’s not acceptable when you don’t do the dirty stuff.

“At the very least we need to make sure we’re hard to beat and well organised. I’m sure we will be.

“We’ve always had good games against them here and it’s one we’re really looking forward to.

“They’ll be delighted that Del has stayed and that they got a win on Friday night.

“I don’t think it was a great performance but they showed they can win games both ways.

“They’ll be looking to get second place in the league this season, that’s for sure.”